ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A Mumbai social enterprise has launched an app designed to make it easier for women to use clean toilets when out in the city.

The Wooloo app allows women to find clean, safe geo-tagged toilets in restaurants, cafes and salons within two kilometres of their location.

According to Woloo's co-founder Manish Kelshikar, only a small percentage of Mumbai's public toilets are designated for women - and fewer still are clean enough to be used safely. He claims four million women travel around the city every day, many of whom avoid consuming water in case they need to use the washroom.

Together with three other entrepreneurs Kelshikar has set up a social enterprise that carries out checks on women's washrooms, looking out for details such as satisfactory lighting, cross-ventilation, non-slip flooring, uncluttered cubicles and the provision of soap, sanitiser, bins, mirrors and tissues.

"We have three Woloo hygiene officers who discreetly visit our bathrooms twice a month and who provide a ranking," said Kelshikar.

Kelshikar claims the 1,200 washrooms outlets that have thrown open their doors to non-customers are reaping their own rewards from joining the scheme. "Restaurants and cafes too have discovered that by offering public bathrooms they are receiving elevated visitor numbers," he said. "Clean washrooms result in happier clients who will come again."

The company is also working on establishing new ladies' toilets in the city's metro and railway stations equipped with CCTV cameras, sanitary towel dispensers, baby feeding rooms and baby-changing stations.

"Our new Powder Rooms are designed to be an equaliser - somewhere where every female can go to hand-wash and access secure sanitation," says Kelshikar.